Facebook will no longer use facial recognition to tag users in photos and videos. Why?

Representatives of the social network and company Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta, announced the discontinuation of facial recognition technology.

What does it mean?

Surely, many users of the social network have noticed that while publishing photos and videos the system "recognizes" people on them and offers to mark them on frames. This is the very facial recognition technology, and Facebook was originally an ardent supporter of it. And users didn't seem to be against it, as it made it easier to communicate with each other. According to statistics, more than a third of active users chose this setting. And that's more than 643 million people, as the third quarter of 2021 Facebook had 1.93 billion active users per day.

However, this software has also sparked controversy. First, there have been concerns about its accuracy and underlying racial biases. For example, the technology is less accurate at identifying people of color. Second, the technology is barely regulated by the government, and regulators have not yet developed clear rules.

As a result, Facebook will stop using facial recognition in the coming weeks and delete all data collected with the software. According to Jerome Pezenti, vice president of  artificial intelligence, the company "needs to weigh the positive options of using facial recognition against society's growing problems".

At  the same time, Facebook will still be working on facial recognition technology and may use it in its other products. "Looking ahead, we still see facial recognition technology as a powerful tool, for example, for people who need to confirm their identity or prevent fraud and impersonation ", - wrote Pesenti.

Source: Facebook